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IFC investment linked to forest loss

13 September 2011

A group of researchers from the American Sociological Association have completed the first cross-national study that examines the impact of the International Finance Corporation (IFC), the World Bank’s private sector lending arm, on forest loss. Published in the first half of 2011, the study looked at 61 countries between 1990 and 2005. It concludes that low- and middle-income countries that receive IFC investment tend to have higher rates of deforestation than those that do not, and forest loss rates are even higher in countries that receive IFC financing in agriculture, extractive industries and forestry.